The Grateful Dead performed and recorded two versions of this song. The first, released on their debut LP as New, New Minglewood Blues, was performed through to the end of the 1960's. The second, released on Shakedown Street as All New Minglewood Blues, was performed between 1976 and 1995. In total the Grateful Dead performed the song well over 400 times.

The original Minglewood Blues was a either a traditional song or a song written by Noah Lewis performed by Cannon's Jug Stompers circa 1928. Similar blues songs exist and it seems likely that the song was an arrangement of existing material.

Noah Lewis then wrote a different song, recorded as New Minglewood Blues, loosely based on the earlier Minglewood Blues. This song, which also incorporates material from earlier songs, was recorded by the Noah Lewis Jug Band circa 1930.

The first version played by the Grateful Dead was based on the 1930 Noah Lewis song New Minglewood Blues, hence the title used on the 1st Grateful Dead album New New Minglewood Blues. The later version played by the Grateful Dead was a reworking of their own earlier version and therefore also based on the 1930 New Minglewood Blues. The reworking of the song is reflected in the title used on Shakedown Street, All New Minglewood Blues.

The New Minglewood Blues title is used here to indicate the provenance of both versions of the song performed by the Grateful Dead and to adhere to common usage on set lists and tapes.

Minglewood (Mengle-Wood) was supposedly a mill town or lumber camp on the Mississippi north of Memphis where travelling musicians would perform. Other interpretations of the song concentrate though on sexual innuendo rather than geography.

The name McGanahan Skjellyfetti was a psuedonym used by the Grateful Dead for group compositions. The name derives originally from a character in Kenneth Patchen's "Memoirs Of A Shy Pornographer", although the name was possibly used by the Dead because one of the band members had a cat of that name.